It is finally, really, actually, verifiably true: Verizon will officially offer the iPhone starting February 10th of this year. Lowell McAdam made the announcement from New York this morning, saying, “If the press write something long enough, eventually it comes true. We’re very very excited about our announcement today.”

It is definitely exciting news. People have been waiting a very long time for this kind of announcement, though personally, I won’t be switching. Not yet anyway.

For one thing, Verizon’s network will be slower. More reliable? Sure, but still slower. I live in a small town in North Carolina and I rarely see service congestion on my iPhone. While AT&T is definitely unreliable in other parts of the world, it’s just fine here. My data is snappy and I rarely drop calls. The only reason to switch would be in network calling to the rest of my family, but I have enough rollover minutes saved up to more than accommodate my dialing habits.

At the very earliest, I’d think about switching in June of 2012. By then, the iPhone 6 should be out, and Verizon’s network should be fast enough to warrant the change. I’ll also, god willing, be living in a different part of the country, and I’d like the assurance that I’ll have a reliable network there.

There is one extremely compelling reason to switch, even if you aren’t having network trouble. The Verizon iPhone will allow you to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. After traveling near the holidays and getting stuck in airports with $7/hour internet fees, I would love few things more than the ability to use my phone as a hotspot. I would say that AT&T will get this feature soon, but the truth is it probably won’t. AT&T has enough data trouble as it is. Clogging its network with more data means reliability will likely take another hit, something AT&T can’t really afford. We’ll see how Verizon handles the iPhone data load.

We’ve been hearing about 4G and Verizon’s LTE for a while now, and it’s kept most of us praying for a Verizon iPhone in the near future. According to Verizon President and CEO Lowell McAdam we’ll be waiting until at least the second half of 2010.

In a recent conference call, McAdam stated the LTE service would roll out for testing in 20 to 30 markets during the specified time frame. The rest of the nation will have to wait until “late 2013, early 2014.” McAdam wouldn’t say much else, other than to mention a small “pre-commercial” testing on both coasts later this year. Sounds like I’ll have time to pick up the new iPhone later this summer and run through a full contract cycle before a few thousand people led by a man in horn rims with a creepy smile start following me around.